From Tuesday night through Saturday afternoon last week, the complaining, hand-wringing, chastising and head-shaking came out in force. All from the national media. The supposed experts on the game were incredulous as to why the College Football Playoffs selection committee placed Alabama at No. 4 in the rankings, ahead of a handful of unbeatens and a couple of one-loss teams -- Notre Dame and Florida -- that, despite those defeats, were highly esteemed by the national media.

Two longtime SEC East big boys. Now going two entirely different directions.

That was the story coming out of Jacksonville, Fla., over the weekend after the latest installment of the Florida-Georgia rivalry ended with Florida winning 27-3.

It was yet another sign this season that the Gators, under first-year head coach Jim McElwain, have become relevant again on the national scene. Very relevant, in fact. Florida, whose lone loss this season came at LSU, is now one SEC win away from punching its ticket to the Georgia Dome to play for an SEC title, and a win there could very well mean a spot in the College Football Playoffs.

If ever a team needed to be on upset alert, this weekend is most certainly it for Alabama.

Since self-imploding against Ole Miss on Sept. 19, the Crimson Tide have been rolling. And picking up steam fast. Alabama has gone 4-0 the past four weeks with its most impressive, dominating victories coming on the road against undefeated, top 10 competition.

Alabama upset (yes, it did classify as an upset) Georgia, 38-10, on Oct. 3. Two weeks later it went back on the road and walloped Texas A&M, 41-23. The other two wins in the last month were home wins over not-as-imposing competition -- 34-0 over Louisiana-Monroe and 27-14 over Arkansas.